Sunday 8 September 2019

Uncertainty


Overheard last night:

Chairman: "Shall I give you your wedding anniversary present today instead of Monday? It would provide certainty."

Hay: "What earthly use would I have for an Iron Man crash helmet?"

It really amuses me to hear the Brexit supporting MPs moaning about the uncertainty affecting Britain negatively and maintaining we should leave immediately to provide certainty.

It's like saying the uncertainty about your date of death justifies a one-way trip to Dignitas tomorrow.


They also say businesses should be planning - but how does one plan for chaos? It'll be real, seat-of-the-pants, rollercoaster reactivity when customers want to know prices in advance of purchase and you have no idea where sterling is going, except down, especially if you have imported components in your final product. How much do you add for customs clearance? What are the tariffs going to be? There's almost no information. Leaving provides certainty only about the decision, not the processes or costs involved in continuing business.

To provide absolute certainty, just ditch the whole, sorry mess, which is unravelling faster than a ball of wool in a cat's paws. No change is certainty, by definition.




No comments: